A Map Worth Glancing At

“There is no alternative”, Margaret Thatcher infamously stated as an argument for capital- ism in its most liberal form – despite its obvious shortcomings – as the only relevant eco- nomic system in advanced and modern democracies. With the demise of state socialism in the 1990s for a time it seemed like she had been right, and more and more in urban planning and design today, the market forces seem at least as important as the human condition. But why is it meant to be unrealistic to propose decent housing for all or an urbanism that puts the needs of people above those of profit? And what is inconceivable about an urbanism that is no longer based around private property, or that emphasises the pleasures and joys of living? In this e-mail conversation the British geographer David Pinder makes a defence for utopian thinking as a means to imagine alternatives that seem impossible today but may be possible tomorrow